I am slowly working my way through Tim Chester's book, A Meal with Jesus. It is a useful book from which I think many people would find benefit in learning how to share their lives with others as Jesus shared His with us. Below are a couple of quotes that particularly impacted my thinking today:
The effect of this ritual cleansing was not only to create boundaries with Gentiles, but also with the poor. The religious elite had created a system of moral respectability that only the wealthy could ever hope to maintain. Only the rich had the time and money to do all the required ritual cleansing. You can’t be ritually clean in a slum. This was bourgeois spirituality. We can do this too. Our expectations of clothing, behavior, literacy, and punctuality can exclude the poor.
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But we can’t condemn these things at a distance. That’s legalism. We must come alongside, proclaiming and demonstrating the transforming grace of God.
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Suddenly it isn’t uncleanness that’s contagious. That’s how it was in the old Levitical system. If you touched anything unclean, you became unclean. But with Jesus it’s his holiness that’s contagious.
Chester, Tim (2011-04-05). A Meal with Jesus: Discovering Grace, Community, and Mission around the Table (Re:Lit) (Kindle Locations 278-282, 288-289, 332-334). Good News Publishers/Crossway Books. Kindle Edition. (Emphasis mine)
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